Given that I am now employed by Apple, I will refrain from speculating on any of the product or service announcements that will be made, but this invitation went out from Apple this week, regarding an event scheduled for next Tuesday morning (local time) in San Francisco. Looking forward to seeing what they announce!
(Believe it or not, even working for Apple, I don’t know any more than you do!) 🙂
I watched an episode of PBS’ Nova recently titled, “Voyage to the Mystery Moon”. It was the story of NASA’s Cassini mission to explore Saturn and land on its enormous moon, Titan. Very cool show about a pretty fascinating project. I am definitely very interested in space and space exploration.
Well, that show led me to do a bit more research on the internets, and while there, I discovered that right now (at least where we live) you can look up in the western sky, just after sunset, and see Saturn and Mars really really close together. It’s pretty cool. You should try it.
This article gives a bit more detail, but it’s basically July 9-11 that the planets will appear to be close together in the sky.
So if it’s a nice night where you are (and you’re near where we are) get out and enjoy the view!
I’m late to the party with this one, but it’s been busy around here… what can I say?
So, last week there were reports that a genuine Mac OS trojan had been discovered “in the wild” (meaning, in the real world, affecting real Mac users). I checked it out (per the link above) today and found that it’s still just a good opportunity to get some hits to your site.
The so-called “trojan” is an AppleScript file that must be downloaded, and double-clicked (opened) in order to do anything. I must admit, what it is able to do is impressive. It somehow works around the OS safeguards and is able to do some things only an administrator should do. However, it still requires user activation.
So, the Mac continues to be (by far) the safest computing platform available. I do wonder if this particular script “counts” enough for Apple to have to say there are now (1) viruses for the Mac?
(NOTE: I visited a page where Apple used to claim there were currently zero viruses for the Mac OS, and now it does not explicitly say that. Perhaps they are becoming a bit less smug about their incredible security? Perhaps.)
How busy have things been around here of late, you ask? Well, today I was browsing my news RSS folder (for the first time in a while) and caught a few articles titles referencing the big WWDC keynote today at 10am PST… and I thought, “TODAY???”
That’s right, folks. There are big doin’s today in the world of Apple, and I was totally unaware of it!
I’ll try to do better next time… 🙂
I learned today that earlier this week, singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman‘s 5-year-old adopted daughter was killed in an accident in the family’s driveway.
Somehow, God has made us similar. I am a fan of his music – and something inexplicably deeper than that. There are similarities in my songwriting to his. Also a “big fan” of their family, and the way they are not only adopting, but helping lots of families do the same. We have not adopted – yet – but apparently share a similar love for big families.
And as a dad of little girls… how sad this family must be right now. How sad. We know that we only grieve temporarily when we know Jesus (to know him is eternal life…) but still… how they must hurt.
They set up a page with a little family video they made just a few weeks before she was killed. As well as a place to leave comments. Here’s the link:
I wanted to comment on the incident that took place recently in Texas, where authorities stormed a private ranch and took everyone by force, separating kids from their families, and all sorts of very not-American things. It just made me sick when I heard about it.
I am not a polygamist. But I am a “libertarian”. Not by political affiliation, by principle. We here in America (according to the Declaration of Independence) feel that all are created equal and should inherently be free. Especially freedom of religion. Now, that can make you do some kooky things. And you should have the freedom to do kooky things. You can’t force other people to, and there are weird lines there when religion is involved, but in general, I’m against the government deciding what’s too kooky.
For the second time this week I am linking to a column by Bob Lonsberry, local radio talk show personality. He’s abrasive and a bit crazy sometimes, but sometimes can be poignant and present very valid points. He wrote what I wanted to (with much more information that I had) regarding the state seizing not only the ranch and the people, but their children and “relieving” the parents of their parental rights. All of them. As a group. Before proving any sort of guilt.
Yikes.
We’re pretty kooky in our own right. We Campbells. We don’t do things like most people. In most ways, I think that makes us stand out in a good way. But what if the government were to catch wind of our crazy thinkings? You mean, they don’t really do school (like we do) with their kids… they just learn from every day as it unfolds?? or… Well, this won’t happen yet, but, You mean they are Christians, but they don’t attend any church services of any kind??? There are many more ways we’re “different”… and we are raising a family of people to be “different”. Where is it OK for the government (local, state, federal) to decide that our “different” has crossed some line and now our children are unsafe?
I might be drawing conclusions that are too extreme, but really… it’s scary. What happened in Texas should not have happened in America, and I think we will continue toward this style of governing until all of our liberties are taken away. That’s quite pessimistic, coming from my mouth… but unfortunately it’s not just our politicians, it seems decades of cultural thought has already moved us far down that path of trusting “experts” and “institutions” more than individuals.
Quite sad.
So, for now, we Campbells will keep being kooky, and loving everyone God places in our path. (Including each other!) 🙂
related links
ABC News
The NFL has announced that the 2008 schedule will be released today at 2pm. The NFL Network will be doing a special show coinciding with the release. It’s a fun time of year when you get to see how the next season will unfold. Bills fans are hoping for a prime time game or two. I know I am going to look for the game against Cleveland and circle it on my calendar! That will likely be the “Buffalo Bills Review Game of the Year” where we all attend and invite any listeners to join us before and after the game for some Buffalo Bills fun!
For more details, see this page at ESPN.com.
Go Bills!
I don’t tend to wax political here… mostly because, while fascinated, I think it just gets pretty silly pretty quickly. It’s been an interesting presidential race, though, with two democratic candidates firing shots at each other, and the republican candidate not seeming to have much (real) support from his party. Don’t forget the perpetual third-party candidate, Ralph Nader. He’s in the mix, too. Sorta.
Well, while Hillary is making up stories about dodging bullets, Barack Obama is both drawing praise and criticism for his views on race in America.
I said before what I think about “race”. It should be a non-issue. We are all one race, we just have a few different features, and many different cultures. But we’re all human. End of story. But with various comments from Obama about his “typical white person” grandma, and recently about how “bitter” people cling to religion and guns, as well as the racial comments by the preacher from his church… race is clearly an issue with senator Obama.
I read an opinion piece recently from a local radio talkshow guy because the title caught my attention. “Barack Is Not A Unifier“. I read it, and I don’t think the writer is a supporter of Obama, but the article didn’t come across as a slam, more just a “wake up and smell the coffee” about this guy. It is strange how he is seen as a unifier when he has been quite extreme in his voting record, and the stuff I hear from him only unifies the people who think the same as he does.
I’m not supporting any particular presidential candidate here, nor trying to tear down any in particular. But I do think the national media (or maybe just his own campaign folk) have done a good job of painting Barack Obama in a very rosy light. I definitely shy away from labels, but if you had to pigeonhole me, you’d probably call me a Libertarian. I think that might be 180 degrees opposite of what Obama thinks regarding goverment and it’s role in society.
Will be an interesting year. If the rockstar wins the election, Obama will be our next president. (And I will be very thankful for checks and balances at that point.) I still think Hillary cheated somehow when she won the elections up here in NY. I have never met one Hillary supporter up here in our area. (Though I have seen a few bumper stickers…) 🙂 So… don’t count her out. And McCain… has been strangely silent. He’ll win if the other two divide the voters enough, or even just make them mad enough to “vote for the other guy”.
So, that’s all the politicalness from GregsHead for now. Maybe more in November…
I posted recently some thoughts on the ongoing myth that Apple computers are more expensive (comparing “apples to apples”) than their Windows-running counterparts. It’s pretty amazing that such thinking is still widespread. I like to give folks the benefit of the doubt, and say they just haven’t actually seen the real numbers for themselves…
Today came across another article debunking several myths about Apple/Mac OS. Here’s one snippet of what he said:
While users do pay some premium for both the Apple brand and the innovation that goes into Apple’s often brilliant hardware design, the premium is not out of line with that users already pay for name brand systems from vendors such as Sony, HP or Lenovo. In many cases, comparable Apple systems are priced similarly or in some cases are even cheaper than their competition.
If you’re interested, you can read the full article by Michael Gartenberg at his blog. It’s relatively short. And, if you really still think PCs running windows are cheaper… just read the article. 🙂
(Also, it’s not just the price myth, he also takes on the software myth as well as the proprietary myth. Sheesh. Why so many myths??) 🙂
It’s been quiet here at GregsHead because it’s NOT been quiet in Greg’s office or Greg’s home! I even tried to post something like Steve did yesterday, but didn’t have time to finish it! Ha! 🙂
But wanted to post a link to this article about the Apple market share myth(s). Pretty interesting stuff. Was chatting with a fellow Mac user about it and he sent me this link.
From what I have seen (from my decidedly Mac-skewed vantage point) the world is much more than the fabled 2% Mac market share. And, as the article says, we are some of the coolest tech/computer users out there. 🙂
It’s not too late to “go Mac“…
🙂
